From the November 2017 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
His surgical background has proven effective for forging partnerships with clinicians across all oncologic specialties. As more people see the value in multidisciplinary cancer care, Harrison gladly welcomes them to the club. He has been a leader in comprehensive cancer care for decades.
“Radiation oncology is one of those specialties that mixes strongly with many other areas — surgery, medical oncology, imaging, pathology, genomics, immunology, biology, mathematics — but none of us can cure cancer by ourselves,” said Harrison.
From 1999–2014, he served as the physician-in-chief of Continuum Cancer Centers of New York and was instrumental in developing multidisciplinary programs across all cancer sites in the Continuum health care system. Under his leadership, the cancer program received Gold Level Accreditation for the Continuum Network from the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer, one of the few health systems to earn this level of accreditation.
Harrison’s desire to treat cancer while preserving function led him to specialize in head and neck and skin cancers. “In head and neck and skin cancer, radiation therapy is used as a primary modality. The aspiration to achieve excellent functional and cosmetic outcomes is very important to patients.”
Harrison is an authority in the field of head and neck and skin cancer as he literally wrote the book on it. Harrison is the lead editor of the major textbook Head and Neck Cancer: A Multidisciplinary Approach, currently in its fourth edition. According to one of Harrison’s nominating letters, “his contributions in brachytherapy and intraoperative radiation therapy have shaped the field.”
Developing novel therapies and new ways to deliver treatment has always been a motivator for Harrison. He was one of the first investigators to combine concomitant chemotherapy with radiation therapy for head and neck cancer, now a standard of care. Along with Lowell Anderson, DSc, and Felix Mick, Harrison created the Harrison Anderson Mick Applicator, a medical device used to deliver HDR brachytherapy or HDR IORT treatments.
Harrison brought his entrepreneurial spirit to the board of directors of ASTRO from 2005–2009. As president and chair, he advocated for a name change for the Society to stress the importance of cancer care to its members. At ASTRO’s 50th annual meeting in Boston in September 2008, the membership voted to change its name from the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology to its current name, the American Society for Radiation Oncology.
After spending most of his career in New York, he joined the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute in Tampa, Fla., in 2014. He serves Moffitt as the chair of radiation oncology as well as deputy physician-in-chief.
Michael L. Steinberg, M.D., FASTRO, has worked in service to the specialty of radiation oncology as an advocate and leader.
Following his graduation from the University of Southern California School of Medicine, Steinberg completed a postgraduate year in surgery at LAC+USC Medical Center, before entering the radiation oncology residency and fellowship program at the University of California at Los Angeles.
In the early years of his private medical practice, Dr. Steinberg developed an expertise in health care economics and health policy through teaching and working in health services research at UCLA and the Rand Corporation. Steinberg was tapped to serve as a representative to the Relative Value Update Committee for ASTRO from 1997–2002 and as the radiation oncology representative to the CPT Editorial Committee from 2002–2010. As one of his nominating letters put it, “There is a debt owed to Dr. Steinberg by all radiation oncologists for the many tireless years of work he put in to the CPT Panel, due to his deep understanding of complex health care and reimbursement issues.”
Steinberg understood and foresaw the increasing demands of managing health care economic issues for the specialty of radiation oncology. “This is not just about billing. This is also about access to radiation oncology care and the quality of that care,” Steinberg would say. In 2002, the Health Policy Council was formed as part of the reorganization of ASTRO governance. Steinberg was subsequently elected to the ASTRO board of directors as the inaugural chair of the Health Policy Council, from 2003–2007.
In 2008, Steinberg’s career took a turn when he left community practice to become professor and chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology for the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, a post he still holds. “Although it is unusual for someone to go from private practice to a leadership position in one of the great research universities, Steinberg has all of the qualities needed and it rapidly became clear that he was made for the position,” wrote one of his nominators.
In 2010, Steinberg was elected to the presidential track of ASTRO. In addition to his advocacy for the specialty of radiation oncology on Capitol Hill and with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Dr. Steinberg introduced the notion of the value proposition in health care for radiation oncology. He also led ASTRO board initiatives such as “Choosing Wisely” and the RO-ILS: Radiation Oncology Incident Learning System.
Steinberg has been invited to speak at the Institute of Medicine and numerous academic cancer centers about cancer care. He serves on national technology assessment forums, bringing valuable representation for the specialty to the process. Steinberg has also been appointed to a number of leadership posts, including director of clinical affairs for UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, and after election by his peers, to the chair of clinical chairs for the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He also sits on the executive governing group for UCLA Health.
